We regret to announce that Christoph von Dohnányi was taken ill at the weekend and, with enormous regret, has had to withdraw from conducting his 85th Birthday concert at the Laieszhalle, Hamburg on Thursday 9 October. The Philharmonia Orchestra is very grateful to Vladimir Ashkenazy for stepping in at very short notice to take his place.

Beethoven changed the face of music forever. From his Fifth Symphony’s obsession with its famous opening rhythm to his epic Leonore Overture No.3, audiences had never heard anything like it before. By comparison, Mendelssohn’s greatest innovation was a sleight-of-hand brilliance that creates the impression of elfin dreamworlds floating free of gravity.